Public Outcry After Award-Winning Baker Declares Himself to Be from “Taiwan, China”

SHOCK HAS broken out in Taiwan after baker Wu Pao-chun made an online statement that he was born in “Taiwan, China” and that he was proud of being Chinese. Wu is currently seeking to expand his chain of bakeries to China, hence why his remarks may not surprise. However, Wu’s remarks were shocking because his achievements as a baker had previously made him an object of national pride.

Wu subsequently capitalized on his newfound fame to open a bakery in his native Kaohsiung. After two years, Wu opened subsequent locations in Taipei and Taichung. In 2018, he sought to expand to Singapore and China.

Statement by Wu declaring that he saw himself as Chinese

With his expansion efforts in China, Wu was attacked by Chinese netizens, however, with the accusation that Wu was pro-Taiwanese independence because of 2016 comments by Wu stating that he was not solely focused on the Chinese market, but was focused on international expansion as a whole.

And so some question whether Wu’s statement is the sign of a new trend. This remains to be seen. Either way, nationalistic Chinese may find themselves emboldened by their successes in compelling Taiwanese to declare themselves Chinese. Their victory with Wu and the resultant shock that Wu’s statements have provoked in Taiwanese may simply encourage them to carry out more similar actions in the future.

Brian Hioe was one of the founding editors of New Bloom. He is a freelance writer on social movements and politics, and occasional translator. A New York native and Taiwanese-American, he has an MA in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University and graduated from New York University with majors in History, East Asian Studies, and English Literature. He was Democracy and Human Rights Service Fellow at the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy from 2017 to 2018.

About New Bloom

New Bloom is an online magazine covering activism and youth politics in Taiwan and the Asia Pacific, founded in Taiwan in 2014 in the wake of the Sunflower Movement. We seek to put local voices in touch with international discourse, beginning with Taiwan.